Strangers
by Thyme In Her Eyes
Summary: [Pregame] Aeris ponders about the future and destiny, and bumps into a strange soldier. [Cloud x Aeris, with some mild Aeris x Zack for additional cuteness]


Strangers

by Thyme In Her Eyes

_Author's Notes: _Yet another piece written for the CxA Forum's 100 Themes Challenge (so addictive!). This 'fic was written for the theme "Soldier". Enjoy, and remember that all feedback is appreciated. ::wink::

-- STRANGERS --

Aeris didn't often explore the upper plates, even though she often got better rates for her flowers the few times she ventured up. The rich could afford to be sentimental about flowers in a way the slum-folk never could, but it wasn't the pay that mattered to Aeris: it was the message. To her, flowers meant light, life and hope, and they spoke to the people of the slums who noticed her and stopped to buy, communicated with the deepest part of them. The people above never had time to listen to flowers or take any real comfort from them.

There were more reasons to stay below. On the upper levels, there were more security cameras and Shinra troops and Aeris tripled the risk of being caught by coming up and especially by selling nearby the Shinra barracks. Anyone would tell her it was a downright stupid thing to do, and her mom would lock her in the house for all time if she heard about this, but love made Aeris daring.

It was close to six, and Zack would be off-duty soon and Aeris wasn't going to wait safely at home for him to swing by and pick her up. If this was ever going to work, she couldn't start letting Shinra intimidate her now. Besides, the sooner they met up, the more fun they'd get to have on their date and she just _knew_ he'd give her that perfect, genuine and joke-free smile when he saw her ready and waiting for him. She couldn't stop a silly grin spreading across her face at the thought, and couldn't wait to see him again, and hoped he'd like her new dress.

Carefully making her way closer to the barracks, she thought about nothing except love, the future, and fate, and made sure to avoid a squadron of blue uniformed grunts marching in formation close by her. Standing at a corner, with her face turned up and away from the looming Shinra Headquarters and towards the polluted Midgar sky, Aeris wished she could brush away those dense dark clouds and read the stars, wondering what destiny had in store for her.

Right then, a regular Shinra soldier who'd been struggling to keep up with the rest of his squad stumbled as he ran and bumped right into her. Although Aeris managed to keep her balance, the poor guy sent himself and her basket of flowers careening to the ground, scattering yellow over the dirty pavement.

Aeris' first instinct was to help him up, and she wildly hoped he wouldn't know her face. "Are you okay?"

"Um, yeah..." he mumbled. "Yeah, I'm okay...sorry about that."

The soldier immediately knelt down in the grime and started to pick up the flowers for her. Even though his face was mostly concealed by his helmet and visor, Aeris had guessed he was younger than her and definitely a new recruit, and hearing his voice confirmed it. He was new and he was sweet, and she instantly felt much more at ease around him. She was sure he wouldn't pull anything or even recognise her.

"Don't worry about it – accidents happen, right?" she giggled, and joined him on the pavement collecting the flowers.

"No, this is my fault," he said, working quicker to pick them up. "They're all messed-up..."

"They'll get over it, I promise. Flowers are much tougher than they look," she countered, knowing she was being perfectly friendly but unable to not notice how tensed-up he seemed, as if he didn't know how to interpret her teasing. As if he couldn't tell the difference between a friendly joke and veiled cruelty. The soldier was also barely looking at her, focusing intensely on the cracked pavestones instead.

Her eyes widened as she remembered the reason he'd crashed into her in the first place. "Hey, shouldn't you catch up to your squad? I don't want you to get in trouble or anything, and I hear they're always extra-hard on you when you're a newbie. Don't you worry about me, I can clear these up myself."

He drew away from her then, and even though she couldn't see much of his face, she could tell she'd hurt his feelings. The line of his mouth tensed, as if he was angry with himself as he nodded, stood up and started to walk away, almost defeated. Aeris watched, feeling terrible that she hadn't gotten the reaction she'd been aiming for.

It didn't matter that she didn't know him – it couldn't end like that. "Wait!"

He turned around, puzzled, and she beckoned him back. "Actually, could you stay with me for a minute? I still don't want you to get in trouble, but it looks like I need a little help after all. Do you mind?"

Aeris could instantly tell that he felt better as he quietly walked back to her, knelt down onto to the street again with her, and helped her pick up the fallen flowers. Within a minute or two they were done, and Aeris stood up again, not caring that her pretty dress had been muddied from all that kneeling in dirty, puddle-soaked streets. The young soldier nodded at her politely and turned away again, as if accepting that his bit was done. There was something about him that endeared him to Aeris, and so she couldn't let him leave without any thanks or smiles.

"Thanks for your help," she offered.

The soldier lowered his head, obscuring even more of his face from her. "No, it's alright. It was my fault."

She gave a gentle smile, feeling bad for him, and touched his arm lightly. "Here, take this," she said, offering him the least-muddied flower she could see.

He shook his head. "...I couldn't do that...sorry. You need to sell those."

"Come on. If I can't show my gratitude I'll feel cursed, so you _have_ to take it."

"I, um...there's nobody I could give it to..."

"Good," she said, nodding affirmatively and masking how sorry she was beginning to feel for him. "I don't want anyone else to have it; I want _you_ to have it. Keep it with you and it'll bring you luck."

"How?" he asked wryly and totally out of the blue, and Aeris could've hugged him, being so pleased to see a hint of the strange boy-soldier's real personality creep out of its shy shell.

"Wherever you put it, it'll brighten the place up," she answered with cheerful seriousness. "And you'll start to feel luckier. But please take it, even if you don't believe that."

At last, he hesitantly took the flower from her reaching hand, and although he was hard to read, Aeris knew that she'd done right this time round. And if Zack came by at the wrong moment, then it didn't matter. Sure it would look kind-of weird from his perspective to see her chatting and doling out flowers to a random Shinra soldier, but he'd understand. At least, he'd understand if he knew what was good for him, she thought and bit back a sly grin.

"Thanks..." the soldier said, and Aeris noticed a shy and nervous smile growing on his mouth and it warmed her to see that. She wished she could see his eyes, and almost asked him if he'd take the helmet off, but didn't want to confuse him or lead him on. That would be too unkind.

"Look...I gotta go..." he said awkwardly. "Sorry."

"Don't be," she said. "Bye, and thank you again." _And take care of yourself, Soldier._

"No...it would've been bad if I hadn't done anything when it was my fault to start with. Bye, Miss."

She almost gave him her name then, but let it go. Instead, she gave him a small wave as he walked away, obviously lost again in his own thoughts. Funnily, Aeris felt a pang of sadness thinking that she might never see the sweet, strange guy again.

Aeris smiled fondly, hoping that her strange soldier would be okay in the long run, and knowing that she'd been wrong to think that no-one on the upper plate could benefit from a flower. Then she looked to the sky again, and continued waiting for the man she loved and daydreaming about secret messages from destiny.

-- FIN --


End file.
